Anna Campbell Bridal Elegant Wedding With Peach Colour Scheme

This morning's wedding is one which is very close to our hearts because it's packed full of suppliers we've worked with for numerous years, who we are now lucky enough to call friends. Gorgeous Bride Lisa runs her own stationery and design company and creates gorgeous wedding stationery day in and day out, so we always knew her wedding would be beautiful. Then you throw in the styling prowess of Sundari, The Wedding Stylist, whose own wedding planning journey we shared on these very pages, and you've got yourself one seriously elegant, cohesively styled wedding. Lisa looks absolutely stunning in her Anna Campbell Bridal  gown and the gorgeous Maid of Honour? That's our very own Becky - who had her second little boy just weeks before the big day! We KNOW, she's amazing. There's so much gorgeousness to bring you that we've got a special feature on the design and details coming up on Sunday, so do check back at the weekend to read more. And if you love Lisa's stationery as much as we do then you'll be pleased to know that she has made Skye one of her house collections - you can see it in full here. But for now, I strongly urge you to get comfortable because this is one wedding you'll want to savour...

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The Bride in Anna Campbell Bridal

Lisa The Bride: I’ve never really been one of those girls that dreamt about their wedding dress since they were little – probably too tomboy/geek than all things girly. Even as I grew older I didn’t think too much about it, but working in the wedding industry (I design wedding stationery) means that I see wedding dresses pretty much every working day on social media, so I definitely had an idea of the sort of style I would choose if/when my turn came. When the time did come, I didn’t have a long list of ‘must-haves’ about the dress but I knew I wanted something with straps or sleeves and ideally a low back. I came across Anna Campbell Bridal dresses on Instagram and pretty much loved everything she created. All very boho/beachy style but designed with stunning and delicate details - meaning they would still suit a more traditional style venue. I started my search by booking appointments at stockists that sold Anna Campbell Bridal and was delighted that Coco & Kate was one of these. I’d followed their Instagram account for a while and Sophie (the owner) seemed really sweet! It turns out she is just as lovely in person and made me feel very special from the second I walked into her amazing boutique. I looked through all the designer dresses and tried many on, saving the Anna Campbell Bridal ‘Coco’ dress till last. I loved it. The low back and detailed straps were exactly what I’d been looking for - so elegant and beautiful. With the dress I wore a Helen Martin veil, also from Coco & Kate. I hadn’t decided about the veil prior to trying the dress but knew if I did have one then I wanted something long, thin, simple and elegant. It really helped being able to try the dress and the veil at the same time and as soon as I saw them paired I knew I had to have it! I didn’t worry too much about jewellery – I didn’t feel as though I needed much due to the detail of the dress. I opted for some simple pearl drop earrings, which I grabbed from Accessorize (I knew I’d never wear that type of earring again so didn’t want to spend too much) and I handmade a pretty bracelet with some fabric and embellishments I’d bought at a local fabric market. However, I never got to wear it as I received a gorgeous Tiffany bracelet from Chris on the morning of the wedding.

The Groom

Deciding on what Chris would wear did not take long at all and we both completely agreed that it would be something quite informal. Chris is definitely more of a jeans and t-shirt kinda guy so a traditional morning suit was always going to be far too formal. He also decided that if he was going to invest in a decent suit then it should definitely be something he could wear again. Navy is his colour and that worked well with the rest of the wedding, so that’s what he went for. He got his suit from the Ralph Lauren flagship store in New Bond Street, and it was a really enjoyable day. The staff were amazing, running around grabbing different bits and pieces, whilst we sat drinking tea and champagne. Basically the shopping scene from pretty woman (minus the flashes of midriff and belt of a skirt)! Shoes was a difficult one for Chris, although they always are – I don’t envy men when it comes to shoe shopping! I think we went shoe shopping on 4 separate occasions before he found a really nice stylish pair from Churches – you definitely get what you pay for with men's shoes and you could really see the quality in these.

The Venue

I think the venue must be the first thing on everyone’s list when they start wedding planning – and rightly so! We wanted a summer month, Saturday wedding, and within the next 10 months so we knew it would be a tough ask but it was still harder than we thought. If you are planning your wedding and have somewhere in particular in mind I would absolutely recommend you book as soon as you can! Our friends and family are based all over so location wasn't a priority - which was helpful in giving us more choice but also meant we spent every weekend travelling up and down the country looking for the right place. After visiting many venues Brympton House was the very last one we had booked in. By this point, I’d pretty much resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going to get that ‘feeling’ and actually lots of venues would be perfectly nice. But as we drove up the long drive and turned to see the house lit behind the sinking sun, I grabbed Chris’ hand and squeezed it. Then I knew. And so did he (he just doesn’t like to get excited too quickly). We walked around the venue and I loved every space and how each part of the day would take place in a different area. An old chapel house for the ceremony, a beautiful terrace backed onto a lake (with swans!) for the drinks reception, a big light and airy space for the wedding breakfast, an old stable house with firepits in the courtyard for the evening reception and the bonus that guests could sleep in the house too. It was perfect. Unfortunately planning our wedding with the venue wasn’t quite as stress-free or straightforward as we’d hoped. Partly as each aspect of the venue (the wedding breakfast, the evening food, the bar, the rooms at the venue etc) was run by a different company, meaning it felt like a new list of T&C’s was presented at each stage of the process. Faced with these unexpected terms / issues meant things got a little more stressful than we’d imagined. My advice with venues would be to ask as many questions as you possibly can (even if you think they are obvious – don’t assume anything) and get the answers in writing before signing up or it can prove to be quite costly down the line.

Stationery

Well, this was always going to be one of the most important visual aspects of the wedding! Not only is stationery my biggest passion, it’s also my business. I spend my days designing pretty paper for other couples, so when it came to my own, you can only imagine the excitement – not to mention the pressure! The main invitation was printed onto a luxury heavy cardstock - a whopping 1050gsm in this case (that’s very thick if you’re not a paper geek like me!) and then beautifully gilt-edged with a rose gold foil.

The Decor & Flowers

When it came to décor I had a very strong vision of what I wanted (I can’t pretend Chris took too much interest in this side of things). The décor was to be elegant and timeless with a subtle contemporary edge. I didn’t want anything too grand but instead something more intimate, cosy and pretty. I love botanicals so decided everything would be focused around ivy and eucalyptus. The flowers were to match our chosen colour palette, so we used lots of white, peach and blush. My all time favourite flowers are peonies but sadly they’re not in season in September so our florist Emily (Stems of Somerset) suggested David Austin roses (another a fuller-looking flower), café au lait dahlias, hypericum berries, veronica and astilbe.

The Favours

We originally decided not to have wedding favours – I personally believe the idea is a little old fashioned and I just don’t think you need them. However, this changed when a couple of months into wedding planning my mum was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. It soon became apparent how much care someone in my mum’s situation really needs. Being over 3 hours away I feel pretty useless most of the time but I have the comfort of knowing that my sisters, family and mum's friends are always on hand to look after her. This got us thinking how awful it must be for those that have to go through something like that on their own. This is where Macmillan nurses are worth their weight in gold. These living angels help the lives of so many on a daily basis and we wanted to give something back to them. We decided our wedding favour would be a contribution towards helping them to help others. To deliver this message to our guests I decided it would be really nice to have paper angels to represent these wonderful nurses. With the help of my lovely studio assistant Sarah, we designed 3D standing angels which opened up at the front to reveal a little message card to inform guests of what we’d chosen to do.

The Stylist

With the design of everything planned and feeling pretty satisfied with how it would all look I suddenly had a mini panic. “How are we going to create this perfectly pretty scene when it can only be set up on the morning of the wedding?”. Realising I needed to ‘let go of the reigns’ and pass it on, I knew there was only one person I could trust to make it the room I dreamed of. Yes I am that much of a perfectionist/worrier! This person was Sundari of The Wedding Stylist. I met Sundari through working in the wedding industry (you know those people you insta crush on for a while and feel like you actually know!). We then did a few projects together and I saw first hand how calm, intuitive, creative and all round lovely Sundari was. My faith in her talent meant that I could leave everything with her and not worry about a thing that morning. Sundari explained that with such a large venue it was important not to lose that intimate feeling we were after. The ballroom (where we had the wedding breakfast) was the perfect space to use her clever idea of having different table sizes and shapes, mixing circular tables with L-shaped tables to create a more intimate frame for the room, whilst allowing every table to have its own unique styling. She added texture and tone to the table-scaping by using brass, soft crepe runners white against a pale grey linen and incorporated organic materials such as fruit and trailing ivy. Lots and lots of candlelight brought a romantic warmth to the space. To give you an idea of how much I loved it, I cried when I walked into the room (before all the guests entered) - it was like walking into my very own fairytale!

The Wedding Party

So it turns out bridesmaid dress shopping is a lot harder than you think! I think we spent more time looking for these dresses than I did my wedding gown. The hardest challenge for us was getting the right colours, probably made more difficult by the fact we had two primary colours to match - oh and at the time of looking I had one potentially heavily pregnant Maid of Honour. That’s Rock My Wedding’s very own Becky Sappor who some of you may recognise from the photos – but she actually turned out not to be pregnant at all on the day but a gorgeous mama of 4-week-old Tayo. Becky still completely rocked her maternity dress which we got from Rock-a-Bye-Rosie. My other two bridesmaids (my sisters) wore the most perfectly colour matched dresses from Needle and Thread. I’d swooned over their collections for months so was glad they had something the right style and shade (they also do amazing wedding dresses in case you are looking!). Our little niece Odessa wore a dress from Next which was almost a mini version of Becky’s dress (so cute). My gorgeous nephews looked super cool in their shorts, polka dot shirts, braces and Converse.

The Ceremony

The ceremony took place in an old chapel house - there is a church at the venue but not being religious we chose not to marry there (much to Chris’ mum's disappointment – sorry Mrs G!). But what was lovely is that the chapel house had all the lovely details of a church with its stone floors, big arched windows and pews – it had such a cosy and special feeling about it. I loved my walk down the long aisle, where I found myself transfixed on Chris, who looked like he was about to burst into tears. I’ll never forget the look on his face, it was one of my favourite moments from the day. Turns out the big day also really affected Chris, he was stuck for words during our vows (and his speech!) as he was trying to hold back the tears. Completely out of character for him (I think I’ve seen him cry once in 6 years) but that’s just how emotional it all felt. When planning the day we were worried that the ceremony would flash by too quickly so we decided that we’d include a song in the service. It was hard to choose something non-religious that felt appropriate but then one cosy night-in inspiration struck whilst watching ‘Toy Story’ – “You’ve got a friend in me”. We carefully listened to the lyrics and they were ideal, not to mention that my (very grown-up and manly) husband would class this as one of his all time favourite movies. And even better, my little nephews (the page boys) loved it too, so watching them with beaming smiles, singing along was perfect.

The Entertainment

Entertainment was really important to us. Being one of the last of our friends to marry, we’ve been to our fair share of weddings and the best ones (the ones you remember as a guest) are always the ones with the best parties and the entertainment is a huge factor in that! We decided early on that we wanted a band as there’s something about live music that makes you want to get up and dance! We chose our band The Velveteens (who also DJ’d for us) because we’d actually seen them play at a wedding a few years previous and they did such a good job of getting everyone going. They even learn your first dance song for you, which is such a lovely touch!

The Cake

Deciding who would make our wedding cake was an easy one. One of my very good friends, Sarah, is a cake making genius so she was always our first choice. I knew Sarah would completely get my style, so with no more than our invitations and knowledge of our flowers for a brief, she set off to create a gorgeous (looking and tasting) masterpiece!

The Beauty

I actually found Grace from Lips & Locks on RMW’s List. Grace firstly came to my house to do my trial quite a few months prior to the wedding as this was something I was a bit worried about – I’ve never liked anyone doing my makeup but at the same time felt I wanted that experience on my wedding day. I requested a natural look as I don’t wear too much makeup in general, so something like heavy smokey eyes wouldn’t have felt like me. I showed Grace a few photos of what I liked and she pretty much nailed it first time – the same goes for my hair. I knew she’d be fun to have around on the morning of the wedding and her chilled manner meant she wouldn’t get flustered by the tight timings and 5 excitable girls to please (and that she did!).

The Photography

Photography was always one of those ‘top of the list’ things for me – after all, the photos will last once the day has come and gone. I’m a huge fan of light and colour, so wanted a photographer that used natural light to create soft yet luminous images. I know and have worked with a lot of amazing photographers through my day job so choosing was really not easy. We came across Emma Pilkington during the search and loved her style. We organised an engagement shoot way back in February (freezing cold on a Welsh beach) to meet Emma and also get a feeling for her style first hand. Emma was really lovely and had a very relaxed, unobtrusive style, which for camera nervy people (especially Chris) was another big plus point. I would highly recommend an engagement shoot if your photographer offers them – it was really helpful to us, working out what poses we like and which to avoid for the big day. Having loved the engagement shoot images we booked Emma straight away and she did such an amazing job on the day (as you can see from all the pretty!). So much so that we are still struggling to pick the photos for our wedding album, as there are too many good ones! Emma’s ‘after-service is also outstanding – her sweet manner meant no request was ever too much for her. Plus everything we receive comes beautifully packaged which always put a smile on my face.

The Videography

When we first worked out our wedding budgets, videography wasn’t included – it’s not that we didn’t really want a wedding film, we just didn’t have room on the budget sheet. Simple as that. Months passed and it seemed like everyone we spoke to either said how their video was the thing they loved most or how much they regretted not getting their wedding recorded. It really started playing on my mind and I was convinced that we would regret missing out on this opportunity. Again, being in the wedding industry meant that I often come across companies that are either just launching or relatively new, so I put out a request in wedding forum to see if any of these companies were interested, as I knew they wouldn't cause too much ‘damage’ to our budget. This Modern Revelry were one of the companies that answered my plea – they were just starting out but from the samples we’d seen (and liked) we decided to go meet them and their dog Finnick in a café in London. It also helped that Laura (the second shooter) ran her own wedding planning business so I knew she’d ‘get it’ when it came to the details. Several coffees and chats later we really liked them and confirmed the booking. On the day, they were so discreet that we barely noticed they were there. This was really important to us as we were at first a little worried about the number of cameras (including photographers) in faces. We had no idea what they had captured but a few weeks later came our highlights video and...Oh WOW! We felt so lucky and just couldn’t stop watching it. A couple of weeks later came the full film and again we were over the moon with it. Every little tear, giggle, look, kiss, dance move (even the bad ones!) had been so carefully selected, edited and pieced together to make the most beautiful film coupled with the perfect soundtrack. We have already played the footage a ridiculous number of times, and every time we watch it we grin like smug Cheshire cats. All the feels! ☺